Southwark Liberal Democrats renew campaign as Southwark fails to act on LGBTQ+ history

At the start of LGBTQ+ History Month, Liberal Democrat Councillor Victor Chamberlain has renewed the campaign for Southwark Council to properly and visibly recognise the borough’s LGBTQ+ history, criticising continued inaction. 

Southwark is the site of the final executions for homosexual acts in England in 1835. Campaigners have repeatedly called for this history to be marked, including through a permanent rainbow plaque. 

James Pratt and John Smith were arrested on Dolben St near Blackfriars Road 191 years ago, and subsequently executed outside Newgate Prison. 

Cllr Chamberlain has campaigned for a rainbow plaque for a number of years, and has also been campaigning for a Southwark-wide LGBTQ+ action plan to support the growing LGBTQ+ community in Southwark.  

An action plan was agreed to in a council motion passed unanimously in November 2023, but has yet to be produced. 

Councillor Victor Chamberlain, Liberal Democrat Leader of the Opposition on Southwark Council, said: 

“At the start of LGBT+ History Month, Southwark’s failure to act is simply not acceptable. 

This borough was the site of the last executions for homosexuality in England. That is a shameful and nationally significant part of our history, yet it remains unmarked and ignored. 

Warm words and vague commitments are meaningless without delivery. Inaction sends a message, and it is the wrong one. 

I am renewing this campaign because this history matters, and it deserves permanent, visible recognition now, not at some undefined point in the future. I've written to the Council's chief executive to demand action”